Sailing On

This won't come as any surprise to those of you who have been trying to keep up with this site despite the lack of content lately, but Matt and I wanted to officially say that we are taking a step back from the day-to-day grind of blogging.

This summer has been a busy one for both of us and despite our best efforts, we just haven't been able to post a steady volume of content. The best blogs are the ones that are updated frequently enough to make you want to check them at least once a day. I'd like to think that we achieved that status for a pretty long stretch here (over a year and a half), however, it requires a massive amount of time and dedication maintain that pace, two things that are in very short supply right now.

As Dennis "Cutty" Wise said in one of the more poorly acted scenes in the greatest television show of all time, "the game ain't in me no more".

I'm hardly at my computer at all during the day, which has taken me out of the rhythm of writing and Matt's schedule has been especially frenetic as of late. Maintaining a blog shouldn't feel like an obligation, and when you are doing it as a hobby, don't have a huge readership and the only chances you have to write most days come before and after work, eventually the inspiration to read and write voraciously enough to blog competently is going to dry up. It was only a matter of time.

It's not as if we are going to shut down the site completely, however. We just aren't going to attempt to keep up with previews for every game and there likely won't be any recaps either. Instead, we'll probably end up writing more analytical or historical pieces, jumping into the conversation every so often instead of trying to tread water and keep up with torrent of news and issues going on with the Yanks on a daily basis. If we find the time to post, this is where it will go, but whether that will be every couple of days, once a week or even less will vary.

As I have many times in the past, I would suggest starting up an account on Google Reader and subscribing to our feed. That way, you'll be automatically notified when we post something as opposed to having to come to the site and check, which could get pretty annoying as the flow of posts slows to a trickle. If you want to keep up with us on a more frequent basis, you can follow our shared items on GReader (Jay, Matt) as well. We got a pretty fantastic crew of ShareBros including the dudes from River Ave. Blues, Moshe from TYU, Jonah Keri, Tommy Bennett, Rob Iracane from Walk Off Walk, Lar from Wezen-Ball, Andy Hutchins from The Sporting Blog and many others.

See you around, Fackers.

Sailin' on, sailin' on,
I can hear sweet voices singin, hear sweet music playin',
Sailin' on, sailin' on,
Oh, I wish you were here with me when I'm sailin on.

Feedbackatcha

On Monday, we asked you Fackers for some feedback in hopes that we could better align the content of this blog with your preferences as the readers of it. Most of the time, blogging is a one way interaction. The writer churns out content while the audience takes it in. Sure, commenting is an option, but it's only utilized by a small fraction of the readership and it typically focuses on the subjects within a post and not the overall style and approach of the site.

In principle, I think it's better for the parties involved in an interaction to know what's going on, so we want to give you an idea of what you can expect from us in plain terms. I'm going to go through a few of the things that were brought up in that last post and subsequently in the comments regarding the way we do things around here. I'm sure there are some of you who could care less about this meta-bullshit, but for those who do, here we go:

1. First off, thanks to everyone who responded. It's always good to hear from some of the people who read the site but don't usually comment. We like being reminded that you are more than a bunch of numbers on Google Analytics. Hopefully we can build up the community around here a little more when the regular season rolls around and increase the depth of the discussion in the comments.
   
   
2. Bad news for those who said they enjoy the humor they get here. All jokes, sarcasm, witticisms, bad puns, photoshops, wisecracking, mock-righteous outrage, flippancy, shenanigans, tomfoolery, jocularity, and other various forms of levity are STRICTLY FORBIDDEN FROM NOW ON.
   
   
3. The amount of content - This was the biggest hang up for me, but most of you say you are a lot more concerned with the quality of what is written than the frequency with which it is posted. I, like many bloggers, have a borderline compulsive urge to create new content likely exacerbated by Google Analytics, so it's nice to know that you guys will come back even if we don't post 5 times a day like we did for the better part of last season.
   
   
4. Until the regular season starts, we are going to try to put together at least one post every weekday and aim that for 9 AM. It might not be right on time and there might be additional ones after that or on the weekends, but one every morning seems doable. Hopefully more during the regular season.
   
   
5. As far as our game-to-game coverage, we are going to continue with our song previews. We'll do our best not to repeat the stuff from last year, but we reserve the right to bust out something like "Going Out West" from time to time and avoid out-thinking ourselves.
   
   
6. There were a lot of folks who said they enjoyed them so we are going to keep up our game recaps in some capacity as well. We'll knock out something in essay form if the occasion is called for, but will probably do something shorter like bullet points on most nights. No guarantees on weekends.
   
   
7. Linkarounds will continue. Glad that you guys like them because I look at them to be win-win-win. They're relatively easy to put together, it gives you a lot of optional reading material and also drives a small amount of traffic to the other sites I'm linking to. I might start adding some non-sports like the stuff I share on Google Reader as well, but we'll see what happens.

Okay, that's about it. As always, your inputs are welcome. Leave some comments, send us an email. We'll be around.

Asking For Some Feedback From You

One of the things I struggle with most about creating a stream of content for a blog is one of the most basic principles taught in any writing class: writing for the appropriate audience. Well, part of the reason for that is in academia, who you're writing for is much simpler to define - it's your teacher unless otherwise stated. With a blog, the audience is incredibly diverse, with people of all ages, in a variety of locations, with incredibly disparate reading habits, each looking for something unique.

Every reader that comes to the site brings a slightly different perspective with them. You folks come from all over the country and the world (in the last month we've had visits from 109 countries spread out on every continent except Antarctica). You folks all have a different daily rotation of blogs that you read and you emerse yourself in them to varying extents. How can we cater to those who read tons of Yankee and other baseball blogs at the same time as we take care of those who read relatively few? The answer is that you really can't. You have to try to find some sort of a happy medium.

One of the most important distinctions there is among the readership of any blog is the way that the site is consumed, either through the website or via RSS. When we weren't posting last week, someone who primarily visits the homepage probably checked back a few times before the week was over to see if there was a new post, only to come up empty. However, those who read via RSS probably didn't care or even notice our impromptu hiatus - they are automatically notified when one of our posts goes up and don't spend much time worrying about when the next one will come. Essentially, there is a significant portion of our readership who isn't concerned with how often we post, and another, larger section to whom the volume of content is extremely important.

This is how I imagine the dichotomy looks:

For instance, a blog like Wezen-Ball is best enjoyed through an RSS feed because although Larry doesn't post very often, when he does, it's extremely good. MLB Trade Rumors, on the other hand, is updated often enough for people to be able to check back every few hours and find some new things to read.

In general, people who visit the homepage get drawn back more often by a large number of posts but will get out of the habit of checking the homepage it it's not updated frequently enough. On the other hand, those who read via RSS are more likely to be annoyed by an unwieldy volume of them since they have probably already subscribed to about as many (or likely more) blogs than they can comfortably keep up with. But, they can also tolerate a very low volume of posts.

There is a theoretical sweet spot where those lines two meet, but given the standards we hold ourself to here, it's probably not possible for us to post that much quality content that often.

I think we usually manage find a pretty good balance between quantity and quality, but March is probably the worst time of year for our style of blogging. We don't do a lot of straight reporting of the news around here and because of that, it turns out to be much more difficult for us to find content during Spring Training than it is from November to mid-February. There are only so many stupid posts about Youk we can put out and so many hacky columns in the New York papers that we can make fun of.

This time of year there is a constant supply of news emanating from Florida, but it's the type of stuff that is not worth analyzing. We all know that what happens in Spring Training isn't to be taken too seriously, and since we try to do more than just blockquote a beat writer and state the obvious, there simply isn't that much to say. Not all of us can be like the dudes from River Ave. Blues and continually come up with interesting topics out of thin air without so much as a meaningful baseball game to draw upon.

With a few exceptions, you folks don't tend to comment a whole lot. We normally don't solicit comments either, but we could certainly use some feedback on this.

A few starting points:

• What do you expect from a baseball blog in general?
  
  
• What have you come to expect from us in particular?
  
  
• How often do you check the site and are there specific times during the day and week that you do so?
  
  
• How much do you value quality over quantity (or vice versa)?
  
  What kind of posts (linkarounds, historically-slanted pieces, FJM-style, straight news, etc) would you like to see more or less of?
  
  
• We might have to ask again when the regular season rolls around, but what would you like to see from a blog when in comes to game-to-game coverage?
  
  
• Do you enjoy our signature game previews wherein we choose a different song for every one?
  
  
• Is it worth putting together a full recap for every game, or would you like to see something more streamlined like bullet points and/or some graphical data?

We'd certainly appreciate if you could take some time and leave your thoughts - even if it's something quick about just one of those questions - in the comments. You aren't going to hurt our feelings by telling us you don't like something. We're not simply fishing for compliments, so feel free to be honest. If you enjoy the blog here's a good chance to tell us why. If you have some criticisms, now would be a good time to voice those as well.

We're all ears...

Programming Note

Both Matt and I are pretty busy this afternoon and, in the interest of full disclosure, won't have anything new posted until tomorrow morning. It doesn't happen too often around these parts, so we wanted to give you folks a heads up.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the slow motion train wreck that should have already been unfolding over at Deadspin involving Daulerio's threat to publish every tip about improper sexual relations concerning ESPN employees ever emailed to his tip line. And to think, none of this would have happened if Steve Phillips was a better talent evaluator.

That or take a look at this chart and jump to conclusions in regards to what it implies about Joe Girardi's managerial ability (via BBTF). Or check out Lisa Swan's takedown of Tom Verducci and try to explain how CC Sabathia was responsible for the Indians losing Games 6 & 7 of the ALCS to the Red Sox in '07 despite not actually pitching in them. Or try to figure out how on earth our buddy Craig got a freaking death threat over at NBC for talking about the Mariano Rivera incident yesterday. (Hint: You'll never figure the last one out.)

Okay, or just make fun of this whippersnapper who was photographed during Game 3.

Wait, I think I know that kid!

Alright I gotta get outta here before I make fun of more Angels fans under the age of 10. Two in one day is probably enough. Catch you later on.

1,001

I hope you folks don't mind a little self-congratulatory navel-gazing, but I wanted to take a quick moment to acknowledge the fact that the post on Johnny Damon that went up earlier today was the 1,000th to appear on this site.

The very first post came back in the beginning of last October when for some reason, I decided to reserve this domain name and write down a half baked argument for rooting for Red Sox over the Rays in the upcoming ALCS. I didn't bother telling anyone about the site, or writing anything else until over two and a half months later. On Christmas Day, on the heels of the acquisition of Mark Teixeira, I had some more thoughts ruminating and kicked up a 1,000 word post on the implications of the signing.

I followed that with an email entitled "The Fack Youk Manifesto" to a couple of my friends that said, in part:

I realize that there is like an 85% chance that this never really goes anywhere, then dies a slow death from neglect, but there's that 15% that we can carve out this little space for our thoughts, all contribute and make it interesting/entertaining enough for some other people to check it out. I talk enough sports with you guys and hear interesting stuff worthy of a blog post and it makes me think that we could put that stuff to use and concentrate it here.

It's taken a ridiculous amount of time and commitment to keep a steady stream of content flowing into the site, but I'm quite proud that we've established a readership and have a little niche that people seem to enjoy stopping by. We're getting close to 80,000 unique visitors since we started using Google Analytics and even if there is some double counting going on, that still seems like a lot.

Thanks specifically to people like Jason at IIATM,S, Joe at River Ave. Blues, Ross at New Stadium Insider, Craig at Shysterball, Peter Abraham, Tim at The Sports Hernia in addition to Deadspin, With Leather, Big League Stew, Awful Announcing, The Big Lead, BBTF, Jorge Says No!, and countless others who have linked to the site over the past 8 months. Without links from other blogs, it's basically impossible to develop a readership, so the recommendations are much appreciated.

Anyway, if you are new to the site, here are some of Fack Youk's greatest hits from days and months gone by in case you missed them:

• The Many (Awkward) Faces Of Alex Rodriguez
  
  
• An Avalanche Falls On Notre Dame
  
  
• The Chronicles Of Doris: Parts I, II, & III
  
  
• Mets To Play 2009 Season At Javits Center
  
  
• Look At It, Dave!
  
  
• Because You Can't Put Blogs On Your Bookshelf
  
  
• Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad
  
  
• The Extreme Beer Festival Diaries
  
  
• No More Max Kellerman? Um, WHAT?
  
  
• The Great Divider(s)
  
  
• He Also Picked Mickey Rourke
  
  
• Papeljerk

Hopefully these 1,001 posts are only the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned.

Guitar Solo Sunday

Anyone up for a new recurring feature?

Here are the rules:

1. No other instruments (for now)
2. No singing
3. Under 5 minutes
4. Take a picture of the scene of the crime
5. Make a simple YouTube of it
   
6. Make your mother proud

I have left the initial offering to the Guitar Gods below.

It was actually tuned up to 450Hz, which is where Clapton plays almost all of his Derek and the Dominoes stuff, which is why it sounds a little more bright than usual. See if you can spot the 60's song melody line that drops a little ways in.

I captured it on the terrible sound recorder program that comes on my computer, which is why there is a crackling in the background. When I figure out how to use the reel to reel recorder that was sitting in our lobby on Friday night (pictured above) with a note that said "Needs a home (barely used)", that will change.

Since it's usually just my PRS and me, it feels kind of cool to throw this up in this space knowing at least a few of you might enjoy it. But it would be awesome if I never did this again, and instead had readers/friends chip them in. Anyone out there with a black Custom Shop Les Paul and a PA system in his basement where we have played over 1,000 games (conservatively) of beer pong who would like to expose me for the marginal guitarist that I am? After that, we could duel Clapton vs. Harrison style. Poolroom jam next time I'm upstate with the R2R? I can think of another Yankee blogger with a vintage telecaster who may or may not like to weigh in.

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There is a strange combination of anonymity and exhibitionism about blogging. There are only a handful of people of people in this world who have ever heard me play the guitar. I could probably name every single one. But at the same time, I feel compelled to post it on this blog where people I have never laid eyes on are probably going to think it sucks, just for the fuck of it.

I apologize for the bait and switch aspect of putting this up on what appears to be a sports blog, but I'm guessing some of you like music. After all, Donald Trump thinks it is the most popular thing in the world.

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Anyway, here it is. It kind of dies in the middle, but picks back up at the end. Somehow it turned out to be 4:20 long. Go figure...

I'll call this "Christmas Cactus" after the plant my grandma gave me sitting on top of my dresser.

The Anxiety Of Influence

The Anxiety of Influence is a theory first put forth by literary critic Harold Bloom. He contended that all poets are inspired to write by existing poets and therefore their work is weaker because it's derivative of what came before. In order to free themselves from the shadow of older works, the strongest younger poets must form their own distinct style using one of six "Revisionary Ratios". Coaching an NFL team, like writing poetry, demands uniqueness in exchange for success. To succeed, a coach, much like a poet, must expand on the styles of those he worked under, not just imitate them.

In the book, Bloom proposes a sort of "poet tree" starting with Shakespeare who begat Milton who begat Keats and so on. In the NFL the coaching tree is even more direct, with the apprentice having actually studied under the master. In this case, Shakespeare would be Bill Parcells (It would be nice to trace it all the way back to Vince Lombardi, but Parcells only coached under Ray Perkins). His coaching tree is wide, with former assistants Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin, Sean Payton, Ray Hanley, and Tony Sparano advancing to be head coaches in the NFL.

Belichick, being the strongest coach to descend from Parcells' tree, has become so strong that including college coaches, his tree is already wider than Parcells'. Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Kirk Ferentz, Nick Saban, Pat Hill, Al Groh and Charlie Weiss have all leveraged their success under Belichick into head coaching jobs.

The two pupils that landed NFL jobs certainly have not enjoyed the success expected of them after leaving the Patriots. In four years with the Browns, Romeo Crennel had a 24-40 record while Eric Mangini (23-25) was just fired by the Jets with a year left on his contract. Coincidentally, the Jets, who went from 4-12 last year to 9-7 this year fired Mangini, who has now replaced Crennel with the Browns, who went from 10-6 to 4-12, at a job that Belichick was once fired from.

Not to say that Crennel is a stronger coach, but I think Mangini is still most plagued by the Anxiety of Influence, having an almost father-son like dynamic with Belichick. There were the icy, standoffish handshakes, the SpyGate tattling, and now son is following in father's footsteps to the one job he couldn't conquer.

This concept obviously applies to writing as well. I'm not the first person to use this concept in reference to sports. I believe that would be Max Kellerman, who occasionally casts Jordan as Shakespeare on his radio show on 1050ESPN, New York. He purports that Kobe suffers from the Anxiety of Influence while LeBron has been more successful in cutting his own path by distributing the ball and involving his teammates more than Jordan ever did. Kobe wears #24, as if to signify that he is the next Jordan, while LeBron wears #23 as a tribute, but has a much different playing style than him.

The stuff I write for this blog is undoubtedly influenced by the sports bloggers, writers and analysts I read and listen to. My pieces on collusion were inspired to some extent by Shysterball. I've explicitly paid homage to FJM. The post I wrote yesterday about the Eagles (and the name of this blog, for fuck's sake) have Big Daddy Drew's fingerprints all over them. I would not have come up with the idea for this post if I didn't listen to Kellerman at work basically every day.

Part of this phenomenon that Bloom fails to mention is that by virtue of being early to the medium, those guys had more room for original thought. They were frontiersman, staking their claims and finding their niches. Unlike the finite amount of land on the frontier though, the news cycle always churns up more material. It's the specific angles (like Awful Announcing or Shysterball) and conventions (like FJM, Leitch's "royal we" or the character sketches on KSK) that get taken up, sort of like styles of poetry. The problem with both is that, the later you are to the party, the more you have to tip toe around styles and voices that have already been established.

Will Mangini be successful with the Browns? That depends if he can step out of Belichick's shadow and establish his own coaching style that takes some of the core components of his sensei, and add some unique wrinkles of his own. Being fired by the Jets and the resulting fresh start with the Browns should give him the chance to start anew.